Student tells US court of attack by gang in Central Park
An English student told a US court how she was attacked and sexually abused by gangs in New York's Central Park after the Puerto Rican Day parade last June.
The 19-year-old woman said the attacks left bruises on her face, thighs and right ankle. She is undergoing psychotherapy because of the abuse.
The woman was testifying at the trial of three men who are among 30 charged with attacks on more than 50 women following the parade.
The defendants are Abel Ortiz, 24, and David Garcia, 33, both of the Bronx and both charged with riot, sex abuse and assault, and Juan Miranda, 23, of Paterson, New Jersey, who is charged with sex abuse. The men are not charged specifically with attacking the English witness.
She said she and two female friends, in New York for the first time, went looking for the Puerto Rican Day parade after being told it would be "a good family outing" .
They entered the park shortly before 6pm, but the parade was over, and they had wandered into its raucous aftermath. She said they saw men throwing water on women, pulling off the women's clothes and taunting them.
The woman said she and her two friends had been in the park for half an hour when "some guys thought it was a good time to do the same thing to us". She said about seven men were in this first attack group.
"As I was getting myself back together, a second group of boys came up and attacked," the woman said. "They surrounded me. Some were cheering the others on, and others were touching me. Some would touch me and jump back into the crowd."
She said she stayed on her feet through the ordeal until a man hit her in the face with a closed fist and caused her to drop to one knee. She said her top came off and she never saw it again. She said she also lost her purse.
"At some point, someone came through the crowd and started pulling me out of there," the witness said
The witness said she has begun a 50 million dollar (Ā£35m) lawsuit against the city because of the attacks.
